House and Barn — Restaurant in Emmaus

7/2022: We had a great time at the House and Barn. We went there to see if the space would work for an upcoming rehearsal dinner. We booked pretty quickly as there were virtually no negatives to speak of . We met with Holly (super nice) who gave us a tour of the facility which is located in the basement or ground floor of the old barn. The barn has been refurbished and remodeled in a beautiful rustic decor. All the exposed beams and feeding troughs and paddock doors and so forth have been refinished and with the stone walls it's just a beautiful space. I highly recommend checking this place out. Can accommodate 50 to 55 people and it's private with its own entrance.

Then we went upstairs and had dinner from their unique light Barn menu. There were live singers who were pretty good and the crowd was mixed. Many retiree, older folks but also there was plenty of young people in their thirties and forties. I saw a few teenagers as well.

Our servers were excellent, being refreshingly pleasant and accommodating.

After we ate out delicious meals we then we strolled around the property. There is a little outdoor corn crib or out building that has been renovated into a small outdoor bar space which is very neat. One of the staff said that they sometimes roll cigars out there and so forth. It's a neat little outdoor space. Then we went over to the House and decided to have an additional drink on the outside back patio that overlooks the lawn area. I believe I saw a fire pit area, another space to sit with Adirondack chairs to overlook the creek and there was a dart board on a tree. So neat. Overall the place is well done and a very unique experience especially when compared to all the other restaurant spaces in the Allentown area. Lots of opportunity to sit outside in different spots and if you like you can move around. I'm very grateful to have had this experience and we look forward to going there for the...

We used to eat here a lot before it turned into House and Barn, but haven't been since so we were so excited to finally go! We had the option to eat inside or out, chose inside which we had to wait, which was fine for a Friday evening. We sat at our table ordered our drinks that came rather quickly, so we sat there talking and admiring the atmosphere and having a nice time..and sat there...and sat there. Other tables have come and gone; staff members had come to check on thier tables and never looked away from that table to look at us.

Finally our appetizer came, ( brought by wait staff not our server) but no side plates, and the food was so salty we couldn't finish it!! Finished our drinks, and sat some more, probably another 15 mins has gone by still haven't seen our server, or anyone else.

Again, wait staff brought our dinner, as we ask him to get our waitress. Waited another 10 mins for her to come, when she did she asked if things were ok, we asked for a around of waters, even though we wanted different drinks we thought that if we did it would take another 20 mins to get that, so just water. Well actually THAT took 15 mins. At this point we just wanted to leave.

Not happy, dinner was good, app was too salty, just tired after a long day and being ignored in a restaurant; we just wanted to go home. So we tried to flag down another waitstaff to get our waitress again, or we were going to the hostess to ask for her at this point.. we did see her come and go talking to others, up and down the stairs, not once look at our table, mind you. Paid and left. I don't think we will be back...

I was so excited to try this place because the atmosphere was so charming, unfortunately did not get to even give this place a chance. My boyfriend and i walked in around 7pm last night for dinner (says they close at 9) and almost immediatly after sitting in the dining area of the barn the bartender walked to the kitchen and said VERY loudly "guess we won't be closing early tonight, another two walked in." Okay....pretty rude, I GET IT I worked in this business for a good handful of years and I know how tiring that job is and I know how annoying it is to serve tables around closing time, but posted closing was two hours away. He comes to our table to take our order, my bf orders a beer, I ordered an iced tea, he asks for both of our IDS. I said to him I didn't have mine, i left it at home, which is why i ordered a non alcoholic drink, but it shouldn't matter, he said he needed both. He didn't even check my bfs ID and said it was the LAW to have both which is wrong. Under PA LCB laws if I didn't have an ID and I was suspected to be under 21 I could still sit with someone consuming alcohol as long as they are OVER the age of 25, but he didn't even check, he just insisted he needed both.

We ended up leaving and going to the trappe door, would have loved to try this place and I'm disappointed that we didn't have the chance. I never write poor reviews because I've been in that business and I know how hard the work can be but I felt that customer service was greatly lacking...